By Kyle Howie
The Santa Barbara Foresters won a back-and-forth extra-inning thriller against the MLB Academy Barons by a score of 7-6. Greg Pace, a regular outfielder, earned Thursday night’s win. Pace pitched two scoreless innings in only his second appearance of the season, pitching through the ninth and tenth innings. The Foresters then won in the bottom of the tenth inning on a walk-off walk.
In the bottom of the 1st inning, Max Belyeu started the scoring with a sacrifice fly which scored Anthony Silva and advanced Will Rogers to third base. Rogers eventually scored on a John Newman Jr. RBI single. After one inning, the Foresters took a 2-0 lead. The Barons soon responded. The top of the 2nd inning featured two unearned runs due to a Foresters’ error. With runners on first and second base, Justin Baldwin lined a single to the outfield. Ryan Black could not secure the ball and allowed two runs to score for the Barons and tied the game.
In the next inning, the Barons took a 3-2 lead from a fielder’s choice by Jacob Klinovsky. Just as the Barons did, the ‘Sters answered back with a Daniel Patterson home run in the bottom half of the inning. With the game tied up in the bottom of the 4th, Black bounced back from his error and gave the Foresters a 4-3 lead with an RBI single.
The uncharacteristic, poor defense from the Foresters continued in the 6th inning. A wild pitch from Zac Colleti allowed a run to score for the Barons and the next batter gave the Barons the lead. A routine groundball to Silva turned into a throwing error and the Barons went up 5-4. Black’s heroics carried over to the bottom of the 6th and he knocked a single to score Rylan Galvan. The game was knotted back up at 6-6.
Roger’s no-doubt, solo home run gave the Foresters the lead in the 7th. The Barons then clawed back to tie the game with a fielder’s choice in the top of the 8th. Pace came on to pitch two shutout innings and allowed the bats to win the game with a Jalin Flores walk-off walk in the bottom of the 10th inning.
The Foresters start the second half of their season on the right foot. They look to continue their hot start on Friday night against the MLB Academy Barons. The game can be heard live on AM 1290 radio; or listen online or stream live via the Foresters’ website, www.sbforesters.org.
